Farmersgirl Kitchen

Thursday, 12 December 2013

Festive, Light and Fruity Whisky Marmalade Cake

I am a huge fan of Christmas cake, but I know that not everyone likes the rich dark fruit cake that is traditionally baked for Christmas. I am also aware that not everyone manages to make their cake in late October or early November to allow it to mature in time for Christmas, so it's really nice to have a lighter cake that can be made and eaten straight away. This recipe is great to make any time of the year, but I've dressed it up a bit for the festive season.

I'm delighted to say that this post is part of #ChristmaswithMackays a 12 days of Christmas feature being run by Mackays, a family run Scottish company who make their preserves in small batches in the traditional way.

Festive, Light and Fruity Whisky Marmalade Cake

For Cake
6oz/175g soft margarine or butter
6oz/175g caster sugar

9oz/250g self-raising flour

6oz/175g sultanas
4oz/125g raisins
50g mixed peel
50g glace cherries, halved
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp Mackays Orange Marmalade with Whisky
1 tbsp Whisky

For Topping 1 clementine, sliced thinly
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp water
glace cherries
Mixed nuts

To make the cake:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 325F, 160C and grease and line an 8in/20cm round cake tin.
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
3. Fill the tin with the mixture, smoothing the top.
4. Bake for 2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. If the cake appears to be browning too quickly place a piece of foil over the top of the tin.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then turn onto a rack and leave until completely cold.

To make the topping
1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat slowly until all the sugar has melted.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken and become like syrup.
3. Add the clementine slices and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Watch it carefully to make sure the sugar syrup does not dry up.
4. Lift the clementine slices out of the syrup and place on a sheet of baking parchment to cool.
5. Set aside the syrup to cool.
6. Brush the top of the cake with the cooled syrup and place the clementine slices, cherries and nuts in an attractive pattern over the top of the cake. Brush the nuts and fruits with the syrup.

Thanks to Claire at Mackays for the samples of Mackays Marmalades, I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Christmas Cake, Fruity, Last minute, Mackays, spices, Whisky Marmalade

Sunday, 18 August 2013

Mixed Vegetable Curry - A Random Recipe

If you had 10 seconds to grab one book, which one would it be?

That's the challenge that Dom set for Random Recipe Challenge #31 I stood in front of my cookery book shelves in the kitchen and panicked! Scanning along the books, I saw so many books that I love to cook and bake from, how could I choose only one? Then I saw it, Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, The Cooks Classic Companion.

When I was growing up my Mum always referred to her Good Housekeeping Cookery Book and she still does. I can't remember when I got this book, it was published in 1998, so probably not that long after that. It has pretty much everything you would ever need in the way of recipes and is definitely my GO TO book.

Now, I know we are supposed to randomly pick the recipe were going to cook, but in this case I had a lot of vegetables in the fridge so I picked randomly from the Vegetarian chapter and came up with 'Mixed Vegetable Curry' on page 228.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

Serves 4-6

1.4kg (3lb) mixed vegetables, including cauliflower, carrots, potato, parsnip and frozen peas

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2.5cm (1inch) piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped

1-2 garlic cloves

2 green chillies, halved and deseeded

30ml (2tbsp) ghee or vegetable oil

10ml (2tsp) turmeric

10ml (2 tsp) ground coriander

10ml (2 tsp) ground cumin

5ml (1 tsp) ground fenugreek

8 whole cloves

8 green cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

600ml (1 pint) canned coconut milk

300ml (1/2 pint) water

salt and pepper

coriander sprigs, to garnish

1. First prepare the vegetables. Divide the cauliflower into florets. Peel the carrots, potato and parsnip and cut into chunks.

2. Put the onion ginger, garlic and chillies in a blender or food processor and process until almost smooth.

3. Heat the ghee or oil in a large heavy-based saucepan, add the onion mixture and fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add all the spices and cook over a high heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring all the time.

4. Add the vegetables to the pan and stir to coat in the spice paste. Gradually stir in the coconut milk and water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45-55 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender, depending on the varieties used. Season with the salt and pepper to taste.

5. Leave the curry to stand for 5 minutes to allow the flavours develop before serving. Garnish with coriander and serve with naan bread, pickles and plain rice.

As usual, Good Housekeeping came up trumps, this was a simple but tasty curry which created 8 good sized servings and got better with keeping. Watch out for the whole spices, crunching on a clove or cardamom pod is best avoided.